A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra observed that live-streaming and recording of court proceedings will help the public know instantly about the important developments in the court.

The Supreme Court of India. (News18 Creative)

New Delhi: Shedding reluctance to open the doors of the top court to the cameras, the Supreme Court on Monday called it "need of the hour" and a step that may further the public interest.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra observed that live-streaming and recording of court proceedings will help the public know instantly about the important developments in the court.

"We may begin this experiment from here," said the CJI, emphasising that the apex court may begin the pilot project on live-streaming from itself.
Attorney General K K Venugopal also supported the idea, saying what happens in various other countries in the world could be emulated by the Supreme Court of India as well.

"Let this be taken on an experiment basis...there should be guidelines on which kind of cases could be live telecast or recorded etc. This court could look at those guidelines and tinker them to suit the need," AG told the bench.

Senior lawyer Indira Jaising, chief petitioner in this case, submitted her suggestions and said that live-streaming of the court proceedings, particularly in important Constitution Bench cases, will immensely help disseminating vital information.

She added this would also help the top court have its own audio-video records of its proceedings.

The bench asked the AG to go through Jaising's suggestions and then submit his proposed guidelines, along with suggestions on how to make the idea administratively workable.

The court will hear the case next on July 23.

The Centre's requests to the previous CJIs to issue administrative orders for audio-video recording of the court proceedings have failed to yield any positive result.

A full court had previously informed the central government that the idea of audio-video recording of the Supreme Court proceedings was not feasible.

Catch the biggest newsmakers and the biggest newsbreaks on CNN-News18, the only news destination. Keep watching CNN-News18 at just 50 paise per month. Contact your cable/DTH operator now!